The crew has their mission and a few shins to equip themselves. What will they need and what really is the story behind their missions, surely it’s not as simple as it seems..
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 150 Numenera - Freedom - sort of
[Music] Hello, and welcome to Night's of the Night actual play podcast. This new manira adventure, Sandscape, was written and run by your jam, Scott. And now, please enjoy episode 150, titled, Freedom, Sort of. [Music] Actual play begins 9 minutes, 50 seconds. [Music] Okay, before we get an adventure, we have a little feedback from kotampacas.com. Remo posted on episode 149. Excellent episode. Can't wait for more. Enjoying Scott's descriptions of serenity as the players march through the palace. I'm looking forward to the seemingly simple mission becoming foo-barred and players' innovations that will arise from the mess. We don't have to wheel off. Yeah, we don't have to wheel off. In previous response to my comments, there has been some confusion as to my gender and the man. But my name is traditionally a woman's name. At least, everyone I've ever met has been a woman. This is what comes from having parents who were once hippies. So, it's okay. Oh, name is this? This is a Remo. Or country? Never heard of any woman. Not sure, country. Yeah, I presume that is a female. Mm-hmm. Well, well, I do know. We could now refer to him in the... The hem. Yes, the mask. The mask. It went back down. The hem. The hem. Because I'm really tired. On Google+, which is another place we've been getting feedback, we've now joined the community for a new manera and fate and a couple other things. So, we've been posting on there. Jason Carter said, "Fantastic podcasts can't ever say enough good things about it." He later actually posted on Facebook as well in which he was talking about, well, I'll read his feedback. He said, "Hey, I could simply slap myself for not thinking of you guys sooner. But any who, I supported the Eclipse Phase Transhuman Kickstarter several months ago and received a PDF copy of the core book and the Sunward Splat Book through Drive Through RPG. Now, I have already purchased these books previously through that site and have no use for the two coupon codes and after the most recent airing of your new manera game and thinking back to your hunter game, I realized that this game would be perfect fit for you guys. If you want the book, give me an email to forward the codes to and you can have them. Cool. Thank you. These are heavy copies. Yes. I've never heard of it. And which game is this? He's referring to the Eclipse Phase Transhuman Kickstarter. Yeah. What does that mean? Still never heard of it. Don't know. No, I'm sorry. That sounds interesting. I probably should have looked up the Kickstarter so I'd have more information. But Jason, thank you very much for the offer. Very cool. And we'll get back to you on that. In general, Transhuman is post some technological advance that humans are blended with machines in some way. Or so. Definitely futuristic. Right. Or another use of the word I've never heard before. Great. Or I'm entirely wrong. There's no queue in coupon, by the way. I just had to say that. Cupon. Cupon. I said coupon. Not everybody says that. But coupon. Yeah. Cupon. Go ahead. Pet peeve. Okay. No. I actually thought of saying that here at this room on the way over here. That's one of my little... Cupon. I thought that really bugs you. That worthless. I mean, absolutely worthless. See, my wife says coupon. I say coupon. Cupon. Okay. Anyway, yeah. I will endeavor here. And now I know why. How could he get married? You were pre-cognitive. I knew I was going to say coupon. Cupon. That's as much as my... It's a superpower. Pre-cognitive works. Yeah, it's worthless. Pre-cognitive works. So your pre-cognitive powers is to notice people are going to say annoying words. No, no, no. Because that's not a very good superpower. It's extraordinarily trivial. Oh. Okay. In every case. Trivia thinks about you only? No, but I had to acknowledge it. Somebody forgot. Just like down the seat. Right. Oh. We've had a lot of comments on Joe's music that's been chosen from... that we chose from the Newman era. I want to just point that out that a lot of the fans seem to really be enjoying me. Right. The intro music. Joe was awesome. Joe does a great job of setting us up with some cool introductory music. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to both the McDonald brothers, Scott Lee and Jason. Jason did a small, a YouTube video of our... one of our song clips in which he animated it using the wood engine damage. Oh, scary spot. Sort of team fortress. There's a different... Yeah. Well, you see team fortress models, but there's an actual menu. Should I bother this one? No, there's an actual name for the tool he used. Regardless, I thought it was hilarious. Yeah. It was brilliant. It was really well done. There's a lot of details in there that I had to go back and... Holding the cradle you have a little gnome. You're like cradling it to protect it. And my knife. Yeah. And there's your knife. Yeah. Yeah. And his brother, Scott Lee, posted up a... it was during our discussion of a visitor or a visitor or... How did you pronounce it? Visor. And it was... Was there? Yeah. I mean, it looks like some local theater group were doing some play or something and it was appropriate to our conversation. So, I want to thank you both for the video. Good stuff, guys. And as far as I know, Jason's working on the second one. He actually showed me a little demo. Which one's this one? No, I don't want any details about it. I just want to know what scene it was. It's World of Darkness. It's the first one. It's a discussion between Greg and Mike about... The worthiness of a Leatherman. Yay. Can't wait for it. All right. That'd be good fun. Thanks for doing that, guys. And lastly, I didn't want to mention the kind of the cob again this week. Last week I mentioned it because I'd only been there Friday and we were playing Friday night. And then it went back Saturday. Had a really good time. Mark went with me, my youngest and my daughter, Megan. And we played Twilight 2000. Got fucking toasted. We just... Every one of us died horribly. I died five steps from the control room, the five mission. Like paranoia? Kind of like paranoia. Headshot blew. I was paced all over the wall. One shot. I was from healthy to dead. It's definitely an old school game. It was enjoyable and fun. But the real fun was that night Chris from Miss Directed Mark ran a fake game for us. And by us I mean Peach from Ruthless Diastema and a husband and wife team, which I think was Keith and Rebecca. I don't know because my memory is terrible, but we had a great time. We played a superhero and we just went full in. Before color, comic book, heroic superhero and all the bad puns that is involved with such things. Mike, where were you? It was... Yeah, it was your game. How about the pun guys? Oh, I was punting all over the place. I don't believe it's embarrassing. There is no recording, so it didn't happen. But I wanted to thank Chris for running it and for Pete and the others who played with it because we really had a good time. We played at least two different scenes and we saved the characters in case we meet again at another convention, which Chris and his partner Mark run a convention up in Buffalo on that they've invited me to. When you mentioned the old school, for some reason it kind of dried up. You remember Tomb of Horrors and the character, screw, job that, the modular ones? You thought that was written by me? Yeah, 22,000 was similar. You certainly were inspired by it. That's when you step through the door and get obliterated and you can't, you just die. But I think the problem I had... Don't say it. Don't say it. The thing... The problem I had and my kids had too is that 22,000 is really an old-school game. And it's not... It calls itself a role-playing game, but there isn't any role-playing. It's really just a simulation of combat. That's what the game is about. There are other... Connie, that was Scott who said that, not me. Just kidding, Tony. No, he's not. There are other skills and stats that are not necessarily combat-oriented. But the whole game is about combat. And it's just about how many shots and rounds you get and how quickly you can blow an enemy apart. Mark's character caught a rocket from a rocket launcher. He was Gibbs. He was pieces. He didn't mean to. He just didn't blow. Like, yeah, not a grown thing. No, no, he wasn't gonna do it. No, jump in front of it. He was sitting in a room at the base and there was, like, many levels and he was in a barrel. He was the guy that got left behind and he died horribly. Megan's face mask melted to her face and, yeah, it was gruesome and death. And my character got his head pasted. It's like a fun game. It was fun. Scott, was there or he ran it? No. This guy was meaner than Scott if you can. Nah, now I know your life. It was a good GM, but that's just a system. It's a very, very brutal system. Based on how we kind of evolved time and stories, if you go back to first edition D&D, I suspect that that system would lend itself to a storytelling environment where you have just enough structure to have your characters and put everything else's really theater of the mind and what the storyteller can create. Right possibly. I don't remember the system well enough. More than 3.5? That's what I'm familiar with. You know, we're 1.0. Character class of dwarf and elf and, you know, those are character classes? Yeah. Yeah. Character classes. Honestly, they were. Okay. Okay. With that, again, we're seeing action on the Amazon link. Thank you for everybody who's using it and keep using it, folks, and it's helped paying the monthly bills for the podcast. They covered it for this month? I think pretty close. Pretty close. Alright. We'll go on to our new Monera adventure. This is new Monera, chapter 2 of our story, Sandswept. I'm Scott, your GM, and on my right is. Jim, playing Eshman, the mystical nano who works miracles. I'm Tom, playing Tila, who is an intelligent Jack who howls at the moon. I'm Mike, playing Bosco, a tough glade who fuses flesh and steel. I'm Michael, playing Nina, the stealthy nano who exists partially out of the face. I'm Thomas, playing Felix, the strong will of Jack who humps with great skill. John, playing Sig, the mutant nano who talks to machines. Alright. Well, we left off last week. You had just gotten done speaking to the vizier and had been given an assignment. You were being led back through the corridors of power by Dedrick Quill, the captain of the guard. It seemed to be a nice enough fall. Yes, he seemed to comport himself while he treated you with a certain degree of respect. Once he had made introductions back at the face tubes. And he leads you back through the corridors and for any small questions you might have. Just from my point of view, I found it pretty extraordinary that we even had an audience with the vizier. That would have been an excellent deduction of the events. You could have spoke to anyone and been given this particular job. Right. Why did you speak to the actual leader, the Sultan of Serenity? I agree. And that made me think that was there through my experience, if I have any so far. Is there anything that we might have sensed or noticed? I thought it odd that he was surrounded by ad-human guards and the Eon Priesthood. Right. And it's almost not uncommon in other small towns and cities that you and your sister may have visited. Not uncommon for the Eon Priest to have a certain degree of importance of standing in the community. So that certainly shouldn't have shocked you too much. She was a young Eon Priest to be an advisor to the vizier. So would I perceive the fact that he had all of human guards to be just a sign of wealth, position and power? Or would it be an odd thing? Because it seemed to me that he wouldn't trust your experience in the cold desert. When I say you experienced the cold desert, you certainly don't go deep into the desert. You work on the periphery in the various small villages and towns you trade in sometimes even in cities. It would have been your experience that ad-humans almost always equal caravan raids, attacks. You're beating them off. You're dodging them. You're outsmarting them. So you're saying savages? Absolutely. When you share with yourself. Yeah. So I guess that's my point. The fact that we have either ad-humans that are in control enough of themselves, that they're even guards, let alone their guards of the vizier. It seems to me like am I seeing something? Is he a figurehead that's maybe being, first of all, it's odd that we're summoned. That we have a slowly to talk. That's weird too. It's like, well, totally ad-human guards. I had a thought that maybe he's a hostage and he's just a figurehead or a puppet now. And this is just a ploy to somehow start a ball rolling to free him as one of his many attempts. If it was, then it would have to be done on the highest level. We were definitely in a position on the highest platform in the palace. We weren't in a closet. Well, maybe we were. We don't know what the throne room would look like in the office. And we don't know what the vizier is. I mean, so part of me is like, are we being set up here? Are our pets only? I don't know. I'm just being a nervous Nelly. But as far as is some heavy ab human rights... The boss would use the term nervous Nelly. But I don't think boss go like me. Well, I don't think human era is a terrible, horrible beast of doubt and uncertainty. Oh, maybe. Alright. One of his wives to be nervous of the Nellies then. I saw that the ab humans is there. It's something that is a show of strength that I took some savage people who kick butt and they work for me instead of giving me trouble if they're working for me. I think it's very will be because I'm a bumpkin in the place of this grandeur. So... It assumes all the new an era he has would enable him to keep control over these people. Exactly. But that's... I'm just voicing my confusion. What I was going to say to you, Mike, is that Bosco has nothing other than his own feelings about the subject. Not that the vizier did. He didn't show anything. There was no doubt or any inkling that he wasn't in complete command of that room. You might think that's odd and maybe something's going on. It would be a feeling though. It wouldn't be based on any effects if that's fair. Yeah, it is fair. I'm simply voicing a suspicion. Are we already in the room getting our stuff together and getting our things? I believe we're walking down. We're walking down some corridors. I just wanted to give people a chance to kind of give me some feedback. If they had any questions based on how we ended last week is off. And it sounds like we don't have a ton. If that's the case, then you end up in the equipment room. And all your equipment is... The minute I see it, I bolt across the room. I'm checking. Well, it's not quite like that. Ah, come on! Where's my feelings? No, you can get your things. It's just that it's an incredibly large room. It figured something along the lines of a medium-sized library in today's world. So you've got, you walk into a room. It's a relatively large room. It's at least 100 meters long. It's probably 30 meters across. There are all kinds of storage compartments made of some kind of synth plastic with some neurology on them. There's a large curved desk that isn't impressive looking in the sense of it's not ornate. It's functional. And there's several people behind there with paper, and you're basically at a police equipment room. This is not really like a better story. So like, right, there's a lost arc, you know? Well, I'm first in line. I need my stuff now. Right. So, Dadric walks into the counter and shoots out some ID numbers verbally to someone behind the counter, who then is paging through. It seems to be a manual system. There's nothing besides pen and paper here. And they begin to retrieve your stuff. So within 15 minutes, everyone has their belongings, you sort through it. Everything that was taken is still there, including the exact number of shins you had, the exact type of equipment you had. Everything is accounted for. At that point, you do have to sign paperwork indicating that you did receive your items back. And within another, say, 30 minutes, you find yourself back in the below via some phase tubes that lead to a building that's almost like a police headquarters in the below, and one of the quarters of the below. And you're on the street within 30 minutes, taking in the familiar site. One way to talk anybody inside of like giving us some provisions, some money, some food, some armor, some weapons for our trip. Once you phase down from the good captain of the guard, Dadric, you are basically almost unknown to the people below. They see you come through, they're like, "Okay, great, the door is over there." You know, they realize you're coming from the detention tube that people who are incarcerated will eventually get released. I need to know two things. I have a timepiece that tells me the next time I change. Okay. My character wants to know when that next time is. Now, she's been incarcerated roughly a month, so it happens monthly. So it's coming soon. I leave it up to you as the GM when it would be appropriate for that to come. Second thing, I really got to know whose name did Nina sign. Because I know it wasn't yours. When I told you to sign for your shit. What do you mean by that? I just know you well enough that you didn't sign your name. Maybe she signed Nina and Nina isn't for real. You weren't watching, you'll have to do a damn it. Actually, I was even thinking that it wouldn't be a signature. It would probably be some type of bio metric. This was old school because you weren't only the privileged. Yes. You moved away from the palace, the palatial estate and you're now more in the legal system, which is much less advanced. Advanced, thank you, than everything else. You all... Actually, move down or move... Can I sign with my metal here? All right. I'll teach you. Oh. You all receive what amounts to a piece of plastic synth. Maybe three inches by two inches. So you can definitely hold it in your hand. It's got some raised symbols, and then what you were told by Deadrich is that you're to take these to anyone who want to come up with a name for a dry goods store, a basic provision store in the below. Vex, V-E-K-S. V-E-K-S. Oh, you have seen before, yes. Vex, sundries. And salt. Isn't them blue? And salt, please. It's sundries. Everything's hand salt. And salt. As you work your way out of the police station down in the... sections of the below. As you walk out the doors, you're struck by the uniqueness of where you're at. Whether you've lived here your entire life, but you've been incarcerated for ten, twenty, or thirty days, or whether you're a new visitor of the city. It is a city unlike any other. You've got the three mirages above you. Every time you look up, to be honest, most times you might be able to hear them, other than see them, because of the way the mist is falling. But you've got this incredibly vibrant city. And it is a city. It's a large town, but I think it borders on city. And it has this perpetual mist that hangs over it. So that you can hear people, and hear the calls of... Is it more of a fog than a mist? No, it's definitely a mist. There's definitely some wetness to it, because of the waterfalls. And the mist does retain some wetness. It doesn't just turn into a cloudiness. I again liken it to Niagara Falls, if you've been there. You're wet the whole time, and you're at least a mile away from it. So everybody in the city is kind of used to being slightly damp all the time? It's damp, but the city is so unique in the sense that you're walking, and people just come out of the mist. You hear the voices, you hear the talking, you hear all this boister of this bizarre city, and I say bizarre in the sense of things being sold, shopkeepers and stallkeepers, and there's pack animals moving down the streets carrying goods. And all of it you can hear, but you can't really see more than 20 feet in front of you. And yet you kind of know the city, again, whether you're a visitor, and you've just kind of got familiar with some of the main thoroughfares or whether you're a lifetime resident. And every time you turn a corner or the mist just parts a little bit, there's a new, huge, there's that new, but there's a huge stall there with some citizen selling whatever they're selling. And there's a ride of colors and a ride of spices and rugs and dried sundries and weapons and, of course, manners. The entire city is one huge bizarre. And yet you can't see 20 feet in front of you. So you're always coming upon these incredible sights as you're walking. And there always seems to be a perpetual, every time you look at a certain angle, if the sun comes out for a bit and it works its way weekly through the mist, rainbows being shot. It's just, it's an incredible city to walk through. Is it like a piazza where there's an open area? Oh, there's large open areas and there's these narrow, wide and passive open up into these squares that are smaller in size? Again, you can't see far than 20 feet in front of you because this ever-present mist that just clings to the city. But it makes walking through it incredibly interesting because you hear things and boom, something's coming out of the shadows, constantly coming out of the shadows at you. And the glow globes that line the streets, whether covered in the mist, they lend this really cool orange haze that is really quite striking and beautiful. So it's just an incredibly gorgeous city in a very unique way. And that's what you get when you first step out of the police station, that prefab, very clean, crisp looking area that you were in, out into this just maddening tangle of streets and activity and shouts and just the ride of life, I guess, is where I'm going for there. So basically an extremely target-rich environment for my sister Tila, who might be suffering from something very soon. So I ask her, what time does her chronometer say? Her chronometer is looking like it's going to be 10 o'clock this evening. It was morning when you got pulled. So you're probably looking at somewhere around 10 or 10.30 in the morning. I would imagine it counts down the hours. So it's like a, like a precise- So yeah, so you're looking at about 11 hours, 11 and a half hours. It is incredibly precise. I was just wondering if you had a giant thing and then a red mark and, you know, oh shit, I don't know how much that is, but- Do you have to be transformed for a certain amount of time or like once it starts, can I use the music box to contain it or call you? Or do you have to spend like 24 hours as a- How does it work? Yeah, it's okay. Okay, now how it works is I have to kill and consume. If I do not, I am no good the next day. You can force me back, but I am literally not going to be any good the next day. It affects me severely. How do you handle killing? Are you okay with it? I don't like it. Have you revealed this to us? I'm talking only to him, so no, I haven't revealed it to any of us. Because I have a solution for that. Go to water. I like this character and I don't want her to die. I am so involved in buying a period of time. Yeah, I got you. Yeah, that is my next question. It doesn't have to be a sentient being. It can be anything, right? True, but can we feed you Jurassic Park style like we'll just get you a cow? That would work fine. But the problem is after I kill the cow, I am going for the next closest thing. That's where you step in. For me, the thing, the thing, the thing, the little music box. And I don't feast if there's something in sight that I feel a danger to me. And that would be any sentient human. So, what you're saying is that we have a few hours now to... If you can carry a very large cage and a pig, you've got a solution. But the cage has got to be strong enough to keep me contained. Can't you just walk off somewhere? That's what I put a pig in. And then when... I'd like to get at least an hour away from you. And not you, I won't harm you. And you put it in, I know. It's around. Well, then I guess we either have to supply and get out of town as fast as we can, or... We've got to love an hour since we're reasonable. We've got to secure you in some way and should reform. Are we familiar with Serenity enough to know where things are? I think, again, in the main thoroughfare sense, yes, but maybe it's a place like... You might know of it because, again, you're traders who that's what you do for a living. But you certainly have more than enough local knowledge around you to help you if, for some reason, it became difficult to... If I could cut a note on a piece of paper and show it to SIG, it says, "Should we check our stuff for bugs or tracking devices?" You know how to write? I know how to write and have a pen and... Yeah, it is a fire paper. It's not a paper. One sheet of data. I'm sorry, it is endless. Let's go buy things and get the hell out of town as soon as we can. But before we talk freely about this guy and say anything good or bad about him, that's why he wanted to get that note on us if we should check our stuff for bugs or tracking devices. Did you hear any noumenera about our persons other than Bosco's constant humming? You were a living noumenera. I think that Bosco would be white noise in the sense in the background. At this point, anyway. Right, but certainly, like, white noise enough that people could, again, fall asleep to it, so something small and subtle might escape attention. So I think this would be one of those cases where you'd want to make a roll. I'm pretty low-powered yet too, so maybe I'm just a whisper. Maybe as I go up and level, I'll start to get louder. Actually, I think it's the other way around. Oh, is it? Yeah. You're low level, so you're humming pretty loud, and as you get more advanced, you're setting up more advanced. Okay. Your static and his eyes will lessen. But right now, you're definitely distracting. Would it be better for singer for me or for both of us to check for months or tracking devices? He can do it with his nonsense noumenera if I take an action to do it. This is just like a background noise they make, but I can actively sense it. You'd have to ruffle through this. You'd have to be looking at noumenera to see if it's been modified, changed, or something added to it. We have noumenera? Yes. Well, you have sight first, and you have... First of all, let's get moving towards the shop where we're going to buy. Second of all, when we're done, put all this stuff that we know of that is noumenera in one location, move off to another, and you can do a scan on us if you want. Okay. One thing I've recommended, which is incredibly important, Felix was given an envelope by the cap of the guard with instructions. A hand-drawn map, since he is the one who hunts with great skill. He was given basically an envelope with mission-directed, for lack of a better term. I opened the envelope real quick, is it written down what we're supposed to do? Sure. Well, basically, it says... Go ahead. I can't read. Oh, Jen. It's relatively humorous that they would actually give to you. You've never done that. I can read a map, and I can read wanted, and how much they are worth. I can't read words. Are you from the desert? Yeah. Okay. Because the truth isn't counting. I know. How you were at work. I like that about you. Yeah, Terry. Well, I have an idea. If we're looking for... I pretend I can read a bit. I think that Eshman or the father I can read, whoever you want to give it to. Right. I pretend to read for a little bit, and I say, "Oh, yes." You don't want to be Eshman. Don't check this for me, Eshman. Eshman, tell them what it says. I'll keep the map, though. I'm good with the map. The map for what it's worth is... It's relatively crude in the sense that you were just in a room with holographic 3D images being produced by these various new menira, and this is of the hand-drawn variety. And it's much less advanced than what you're looking at right now in the book. But what takes you aback slightly is there's all these cities on the north of the cold desert. Most of the cities, most of the villages. Even ones that you don't see on that map. But that you guys know of Bosco and Tila. You want to be as north as well. You want to be... Yeah, and that's where all the little villages are at. Yeah. It makes sense. You wouldn't be in the middle of the desert. You're going to be on the periphery where you can maybe use some of the resources of the desert but still stay away from most of the trouble that occurs. The route of the caravan was directly south of Serendi. We had nothing else on the map. That's indicated where it was going. It's kind of weird, isn't it? Certainly. Yeah, it certainly is. It sucks. Yeah. South is definitely... it's colder. Isn't there a giant ice water? More boy. Well, if the cold comes. We never traveled there. There isn't many villages down that way. Not many villages down that way. Guide parties that are trailblazing but... The south is not trailblazing. Right. Well, that might be our way into this. We're trying to look for what happened to a caravan. We have gear. With that knowledge. As a caravan. We're going south into the cold. What do we need to buy before we get out of town? You have one line of clothing. Probably. You're on the periphery and it's still very cold here. Except we're on the market. We're just saying, let's hit the shop before we get out of town because we really need to get out of town. Okay. I don't want to be in this town in ten hours. What I'm hoping to do is get our supplies, get our caravan going. We've had experience with the caravan. It also, I think, is good cover as we follow the route where this other caravan that the visitor wants us to investigate. We can kind of follow the same path and hopefully draw or discover clues or draw the attention of who we think brought to the first one. Also, if we can get a significant distance out of town, we can stake the pigs out in the snow, let you ravage them, and everyone can stay in the wagon behind me while I have the music box on my lark. Right. So, at the very least, you can be crawling around outside in the open cold desert. Hey, Tom. I don't want to let all these guys know. I don't know if they need to. There's no words. How is this a good thing to be for a character? Do you have control over it on other days that you... At higher levels, I have control over it and I can change it well and it doesn't have to be specific days and they don't kill people right now. It just happened to me on fighting to control it. Can it be induced? Let me get a wish feature, yes. We have a debit card. So, we go to the trailer place. Yes, it is Vex sundry. I assume you're Vex. The aneans and snow loppers are probably the two most common pack/writing creatures in this part of... We buy you a pig but then you eat the snow lopper. You eat the horses that are the snow lopper. Don't eat the snow lopper. When you get out of the city and it's all dry cold sand or snow or ice or water... Dry cold sand for about 150 miles until you come into the glacial mountain of the... Vex. You are a Vex guy, take it? We've been sent here by the Vex. What does this get us? He has a pair of spectacles and he puts them down on the bridge of his nose. I show him the shit we were given. And he takes a look at it and goes behind the counter and he has some kind of numinary back there but it's down lower where you can't see. He can seal by the height of the counter and he comes back and he says this one in particular has 30 shins on it. You each have a card. I don't suppose we're going to have enough for it. I don't know how much a card. If we had a sled, how many lovers or whatever would we need to haul us across? I'd give him the answer because I know. Lovers are huge. Like 10, 12 foot high? I think it's a little warm. But I'm afraid of buying a loper. Is the loper the sled? It sounds like they're a little bit slippery. I can't tell you why. This is by a loper. The snow loper is more of a creature that's for the snowing mountains to the south. There certainly are several snow loppers that will, and again they're probably a good 12 to 15 foot high creatures. The description is tall and thin leg. A snow loper is a fast moving omnivore. It has a very short neck, a large head with a wide toothy mouth. This one here covers its roundish muscular body. Immediately below are two thin arms with two fingered hands that use mainly for grasping food. So there's a picture of it. The big loper there. That's used if you're going into the mountains. And then this is an anine, which I'll show a picture of it, which is probably a little more common in this area. As far as the peck animals know. The basso in Tila would definitely have a lot of experience with anines. Seriously, you know what that reminds me of? Do you remember the heavy metal movie? Okay, and I'm going to assume that an anine would normally cost... These are southern anines as opposed to the more common northern anine. More rugged. Which is seen in the stud fast. These are definitely much more rugged, much more suitable to this dry... Usually the climate is dry down here in the city. It's not, of course, but in serenity because the ever-present mist. But the southern anine is generally, as a peck animal, which again, Basco and Tila have used before in their operations. You're probably looking at somewhere in the vicinity of a good, healthy anine. It's probably going to go for about, let's say, 75 shins. So four of us have to combine our carts. But then some of us get by the food. I've walked as far as serenity. I'm willing to walk by them. On the hand-drying map that Felix has, it looks like the caravan was lost probably somewhere around three days to the south. He wasn't interested in salvaging any of the stuff. If we could pull it off, that wouldn't be bad. So in that way, I could see a first of all, we're going to need at least a week of food if it's still there. An exploring pack would give you a three days of rations, plus in warm clothes, plus a bunch of other cars. An exploring pack. And it costs 20. 20 shins. Geez. I was already about to trade in some of the people. I'll leave you 60 shins left over, so you have 30, I think, on the car, I said? It's just a 30, you may have. Oh, I've heard 300. I already have an exploring pack, which gives me. I've got an exploring pack too. And that's 40. Then we'll use your money for that. For the anneans. A ton of shins left over. Well, you could consider an investment in your future in the sense that the anneans would help you start back up your father's business in a more robust way. If you don't need a fundage. If you don't know off one of its legs during a feeding frenzy. Now, to be fair, Vek does not deal in anneans. I have sundries and salts. But I know a guy. Of course I know a guy. Well, we're a traitor, so we should at least have context to know the different hosplers or other anneans, hosplers, I guess you'd call them. Well, the lift is a very common bar. I hear it's a word. It's a word with a hive of scum and villainy. It's a place where the caravans that come to town stay. It's a huge, it's almost like a caravan post. It's a caravan post in a way. There's tables for the anene, a large house for... Is this at the bottom of the slagelift? Yeah. It's a truck stuff. They also have lodgings because obviously people who are staying with the caravans are going to be staying in town and don't usually have residences here. So, it's probably a good square quarter of a mile. Let's find out. Alright, let's focus a bit. How much money do we have total with all the chits? We have? How many times? We have 180 shins. I have 14 that I'm really not using, so I'm throwing that in. We have 194. One more. Are you throwing in one? I have one. I have no shins. I have five people. The truth provides. That's fine. We have 195. We need food. Hey, this is exactly what we did at the startup. But there's six of us and we need a total of seven to be safe. Days worth, so we need 42 days of food. We have six. If you start eating us, we can save our food. You're not very good at keeping seekers, are you, Robert? That saves double because she gets to eat. Oh, it still doesn't have to. We need 36 more days of food. How much is that going to cost? Is that coming back? A ration for one day costs two shins. So, 36 would be seven to be two shins. All right, that leaves us with a hundred and two. I used to do the books from my dad. It leaves us with a hundred and twenty-three shins. We have enough food to get there and back again. Plus, we need a day buffer. Everybody who doesn't have an explore pack needs to spend two shins on clothes and boots to keep them warm. I have boots and clothes. We are travelers. Everyone does, but some do. Some do. I have really nice boots. I mean, I don't have it. As a master hunter, too, you can. I don't have it as an extra thing added to me for it, right? I don't actually know if that's in the skill. Okay. You know, character-wise, he totally can't. Sure. You can supplement with frozen nuts. Who else needs water is? I need two shins worth of clothes and warmer clothes and boots. You got it. We're down to 121. What? I'm just a manager here. A listener is listening to our shot. That's free. I imagine town's going to spread out aggressively. Warm clothes and boots. Anybody else? You got a really nice deal, aren't you? Yeah, I need clothes. All right. And some special equipment to cosplay. Are you trying to say that? Okay. Do you specify what that is? Of course not. To myself, yes. This cause five shins. Yes. How about two more shins for a backpack, sir? I always put them at a rather close. All right. Good to the party. Backpacks. We're concerned. So far. It's going to be hard to watch her. I just kind of drift out because I've got everything I ever needed. But I listen around for any kind of new manner in this facility that he might be something. Is anyone confident in First Aid here? He's not. He does. I don't know. First Aid. But it can get better. Yeah. It can heal you. Nothing across the street. I don't have a kit. Maybe we should buy a First Aid. You're right. Ten. We need a beast of burden. We could just buy some washed out old caravan. You guys should be good at this. We're hauling something. We want to look the part. I need an entire caravan. Okay. There's a lot. This is kind of the last stop for a lot of people. Okay. So we need like a caravan wagon or sled and a beast of burden. No. Go to the caravan. What? Sing. Has traveled with caravans. It's easy to shell out a couple of things to push them in a certain direction. They're likely going there anyway. We don't need other people along with us. Trust me. It's a bad thing. Why? We probably want to be because we don't. Because we don't. Because we don't know why. He speaks the truth, brother. We don't want to be slowed down by anyone else. We're going. He's leading us. It's just us. Truth, son. So we go to the caravan. We run a secret mission. We don't need other people watching. Right. Caravansery. Caravansery. We don't need the gathering place of caravans. So you work your way through the teeming streets of Serenity. And you go to the rift is the name of the caravansery. Ah, damn it. I use my seasoned eye to determine a good prospect for offering someone money for one of the bigger places that would have an extra caravan wagon in our sled and a piece of burden. I can threaten someone. Check its teeth. Tiny guy with the big crossbow. I'm good at intimidation. Do you have some type of skill that might be relevant? I have language I can speak to different people if they don't know the truth. I have a people skill for sussing out different types of personalities. And then I have a remembering skill for anything I've ever seen done. So if my father has ever done something of this nature, I have a plus one and that ability to remember how we did it. And unless you know your background is more than anticipated, I saw him as a one-a-neen operation. One-a-neen, one-carts, two family members to go along. For instance, to not be ripped off, I may remember saying, "Oh, this is how you tell a healthy a-neen." I just meant as far as I thought more, like, specifically, like, saw him haggling forward by me. Well, are we stealing, or are we swindling, or are we going to maybe get, like, the former yen? I'm going to see what 120 shins can buy. Okay. Maybe the former EN priest can finagle someone from the church. And when I say 120, I mean 102 because I was being less decksic. It's 102. Well, let's say that within 30 minutes of wandering around... Wandering around the courtyard of the rift, and then going inside, getting some drinks and socializing, and getting a lay of the land. I'm obviously looking for small, you know. It's not these big, huge land wagons that they have. Yeah, you find someone, his name's Fen Epsilon. I'm just going to call it Fen. That is a cool name, Fen. Thanks. Fen is a younger man, maybe late 20s, early 30s. He's got a shock of blood in hair. I'm not in hair using that against him. He has a small operation. You are at least knowledgeable. You're dead talking about the various operations. You've never ran into Fen before, but he definitely knew your father. Oh. And he is... He's very cautious, Fen is, from what you remember your dad talking about. He runs the safest routes, the safest cities, small investments, not large caravans. He tries to turn a little bit safely each time, as opposed to risking the target of the various bandits and ab human tribal groups that might be raiding the caravan. Is he a caravan master or broker? He is a master, much in the sense your father was. He has a family, he has a couple of... He's a little bit bigger. He has a little bit bigger operation than your dad did, but he has probably three to five animes, you would guess, that's what your father talked about him, and might have one or two other caravan masters that work under him and runs the caravans himself as well. So he is at the bar drinking, and you recognize the name of his caravan company from a place down one of his leather jerkins or whatever that he might be wearing to ward off the cold, and it has his name of his company, which is Epsilon. It is his caravan company. Okay, I stop and talk to Finn. Finn is actually thrilled to meet the daughter and son of... Petra, sure, our father was Petra. Okay. For old man. What's math? I'd punch you. My dad was a manly man. All right, so... He was a boy. He's... Finn is just thrilled to meet the son and daughter of Petra and... As we are pleased to meet him, and we're also hoping that he can help us a bit. We find ourselves to be in a situation of needing some assistance. Well, if there's anything I can do for a child or a close relation to Petra, then I'm all for it because he actually... I don't know how much he told. I think you guys weren't working for him at that time yet. He had some hired guards, but he actually took me out at my first caravan route as an observer before I started my own company, and I thought he was just a really good man. Your father was. I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. What's the matter you told about the loss? He's dead. Your dad's dead. I thought he was missing. He was missing. Well, lost. I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I didn't kill him. Just respect. When we see the body, they won't believe he's dead. He just doesn't loss the sense of you. He's missing. I'm sorry. What do you know? Tell me. Down, brother, down. In fact, that's what we need assistance for. We find ourselves in the need to travel. For that, we need to find ourselves a wagon. Smallish, enough for about six or seven people, and in the need. Hopefully, a healthy one. I know your organization might not have these, but surely you could put me in a direction where I could find someone who could sell me these items. Ryan Callistone is who you're looking for. He runs a menagerie here in town, and he has a pretty decent selection of unines. I've gone there when a couple of mine have gotten sick, or I've needed to put them to pasture, if you will. What kind of price can I count on getting from him? He'll give you a fair deal. And that would be in the neighborhood of... I don't want to put him in a spot because I purchased from him. Surely you'd like to see us get picked off. Of course not. I want to see any of Petra's children get ripped off. It's just a case of I don't know that you'll be able to negotiate to the same level, and I would hate from here. No, I don't have anything to negotiate for. Of course, like ball pocket. Somewhere in the vicinity of probably 80, 90 shins for a sturdy work, I mean. And for that rate, you'll probably be able to include the cart, I would think, to that press. Okay, stillable. And the harness is all the equipment that you would, I'm sure, be familiar with. So, you've been more than helpful. A certain act could buy you a drink before relief. That would be fantastic. Please, regale me a couple of shins. Of tails of your half an hour, and I get to have much time in government shins. We blow this off. Government shins. It's all one big pot, isn't it? So, you purchase some alcohol drinks and anything? Yes, spend a couple of things on that. Have some drinks. It's about half an hour, 45 minutes, and we blow the joint because I'm on a time scale here. Actually, you don't. Okay. As you were maybe in the last five minutes. We've got to go. Nina, are you at the bar drinking? Are you with them? Or are you kind of off with people that you know? Are you stopped by the rift a couple times? It's not your main hangout. This is my first paradise. I mean, you run 50 yards in any direction. Oh my God. You've lost in the fog. It's perfect. But... And this caravan... You're working a government job. I don't have to be stealing money any better. I'm in the bar. You're inside. You're surrounded by caravan masters with large... Yeah, large pouches of shins just hanging loosely off of their belts. Anyways, so you're with your group. You're getting kind of acquainted, hearing stories kind of feeding into it. Or are you out and about kind of... Oh, we're trying to get her out. So we can eat for you later. I'll be, uh... Wow, Messiah. Fucking sit down, buddy. Take a break. We've got all the time in the world. Someone settles up next to you at the bar. An open spot. And orders an ice candle ale. After a couple minutes, you kind of feel that someone's watching you. Because you're focusing on your group and you kind of have your back to him. When he came up, he was in his mid 20s. Hans Manoff, he was... Looked like he had a good head on his shoulders. Looked above the normal cut and jib of what you get here in the rift. And you also kind of thought that, just from that first glance, probably dabbles a bit in side pursuits as well. Haven't seen him before. Haven't met him before, but it was just your first impression as he came walking up to the bar. And after what amounts to maybe five minutes of you making small talk with your group and learning more about the family history of Petra and Fen, he clears his throat. You feel him leaning in close to you. Roll the ice for the audience who can't see it. Like you've been pushed up against many a time in crowded bars. But he says, instead of a "come online," his words are, "I hear your head in south." And then you feel him pull himself back away. He picks up this ice candle ale and he heads off to a table that's pretty much on the other side of the bar proper. He looks at your hands and the fact that you're carrying one drink. I position myself so that I can see my party. Okay. He looks a little disappointed that you didn't bring him a drink. That does sound like right. Yeah, it did. Try to play it as best I can. So you sit down at an angle, so you're closer to him actually, because he sat where he's facing your group as opposed to the other way around. He said, "So? Is my information correct? Are you tied in south?" Maybe. What's it's you? Well, through the grapevine, I've heard that there might be something that's kind of valuable that got lost in a translation somewhere in a commute, if you will, or in transit. And I have some insight information and I'm wondering if you might be willing to pick up a seventh to your group for that insight information. I think it's certainly worth your while to know this, but obviously, unless I'm... So you're selling information for the right to join our party? And it's an equal share. Of course. One seventh of the cup. What skills do you bring to bear? Oh, my skills are, let's say, somewhat complimentary to your own. And I believe between the two of us will have most of the more treacherous assignments covered. And from your perspective, you won't have to cover it all yourself. And again, for the information, I mean, that's certainly worth the ride. I suggest you go to my group's table and discuss this one. Bob, you were at the bar and he said something. I don't like talking at bars. I prefer a table where I can look each person in the eye and kind of gauge their character. You might call him over here. Let's see what I can do. Fair enough. That's all I ask. A santa rock? He enjoys the santa. As only a roguish type can do. So I explain to the group that we have this individual who claims to have information that we need. And he's just joining our party. This is right towards the end as you're picking up your tab and getting ready to go to the menagerie. That is owned by Brian Callistone. I think it might be worth a listen at least. I'm off for sure. Do we have time to do this? Yeah. I think we have. We're down to, what, nine hours? Yeah, sure. We're going to get time to get out of time. I've been gone trying to reconnect with the young priesthood in this city. Who's present? I've been gone. I told you I'd meet you at the lift. You're really going to pay attention. Is everybody else's present? Yes. Actually, I was thinking that this was, this is a beyond city. And so there's, even though it's a larger city, there's no formal organization. There are religions in this city, but they're not young religions. I've seen them up in his, you saw one. I'm trying to connect with any of them here because they all work together. If there's one down here that works here, typically. But don't the EN priests and the beyond work kind of independently of the overall? Yes. That's true, but they'd still recognize the brother of the. They would, indeed. I wasn't thinking there was a lot of them here though. I was thinking there might be, in a city of the size, maybe a handful, five or six. Yeah. That might operate independently. In the teleporters, I assume there would be someone down here who occasionally worked on them. It doesn't live up there all the time occasionally. Right. I was just asking around for one. Sure. Well then let's say that you succeeded in that. You were able to find. But this one's about me right now. An EN priest who you can kind of get the lay of the land from. At least as he or she proceeds. I want to know the name of the guy who was up top to you. I'm one who was with the zer. And what kind of work he has them doing if they're willing to talk about that. Okay. That's great. So Nina and Tila and the rest of the group, you then make your way to the table. He stands up as you guys arrive. I walk over to him and touch his arm and say, "What is your name?" Right. Introduce us. A concerned friend. His way to say he doesn't want to reveal too much until he knows he's going to be accepted into the group. So he shakes hands with each of you who will shake his hand or gives a kurt nod. Whatever is appropriate for whatever you guys feel like doing. And then he sits back down at the table. He says, "As Nina may have mentioned, I have some information about your journey south. And I believe it can be incredibly useful to you. I believe that I can be incredibly useful to you. And what I'm asking for is I'm asking for one-seventh of whatever it is we find. I think I can bring a lot to the table, but I also think I bring more than just my skills to the table. I bring information that you'll find quite imperative. Yes. He knows there are six of you. Damn. No one knows. All in that case is Lonzi buys in 30 shins to our concern. That's what everyone's stake is. Definitely. That's true. And the death. You're going to have to give me a bluff for that. Okay? All right. Let's see what you got. We did all country with 30. All right. Yeah. I'm gonna... It's a little bit of a bluff. I'm going to use my bin. It's kind of a white light. I'm going to get any read-off for them. You're going to need a roll as well. Sure. Before you go roll. Do you have any kind of deception at all? No. Aren't you a computer if you have cell truth? Isn't that your prime erected? No, I'm going to tell the truth. The whole race is faster. It's specious. What happens? It's specious. I don't have a very good intellect either. I have the virtue of it being true. Kind of true. In a manner of speaking. Yes. Okay. You don't have any skill at all with talking people. No, my skills are in physical. Okay. So, I'm going to need you to make a... ...on skill. Forget, I need you to say it for a knife. Right. I told you to do it. I don't understand my life. When you wake up, everything will be true. So, let's make an intellect roll then. Okay. I've got a difficulty number in mind. You want to shove some effort towards this? You have it trained and have no assets. No bother apparently. Well, I think we're draining our pulls in some cases unnecessarily and that's a dangerous thing. You're going to have to drain any pull at all? Well, that's not to zero, but that's very dangerous to do that. Well, I don't, I mean, I just have an intellect. I don't want to be able to look forward. Are you putting effort into it? I don't know why I would need intellect for what we got going on. And I would argue, though, two other things otherwise, that we're going to be spending weeks traveling there. You're going to get round days. Right. So, yeah. Well, let's try it. Okay. So, subtract three from your intellect. Right. Okay. You go, you take the difficulty down one level. The person you're talking to is an experienced rogue, ruffian, or ne'er-do-well, if you will. That's all I got. Just because it's alive. So, it's going to raise it one level. And then he actually has a skill in this area, which takes it up one level. So, it's one harder than you would have normally been. But, too hard, it would have been if he hadn't applied your effort. Roll. Uh, no. All right. He doesn't flinch. Okay. Thirty shins. If that's what's standing between us and a gentleman's or gentleman's agreement, then most certainly, I'd be happy to put 30 shins into the pot. No, I tag him with my broads, because I don't trust him. Yeah, of course. Moving forward. It's priorities. We wait until we're out there and then we kill him. For the meat. That's right. Good call. Better plan. And do I get a read on him at anything as far as... Same thing for you. Okay. For a move like this one, the alive work sister. Normally, a good proposition, except once a month. So, you're going to take down one level just automatically. You're spending any effort at all. Right. So, do what? I'm just trying to get a read on it. This guy's total bullshit. If he's trustworthy, if he's spy, is he... Did he pay you to 30 shins? No. No. This is his read when he's talking in general. Okay. Go ahead and make a roll. I've got it in mind. How are you having to have a car that's there? Okay. You sense that he definitely has something. Yeah. There's something he thinks he has and he's not bluffing when he says he has something. What kind of person he is seems like. You mean his evil brother, you know? Whatever. He's a roll. He's a ruffian. So, would you trust him on first watch the first night you're with him? No. No fucking wats. I was going to say what I trust him anymore than Nina, but I don't really trust her. Right. So, yes. You would trust him right after the same amount that you would trust Nina. I don't know you. Well, other than that, you have no reason to trust her. So, that's your read from it? No, I don't. I don't trust any of these guys. There's one person in this party I trust. It's my brother. Okay. I'm pretty dead. I trust him too. So, do you have 30 shins to pay? You may not think that it's a fair deal. But, I have information that none of you have. That's what I bring to the table. Let's see it. I have to defer to our financial officer. I'll tell you what. Does that depend upon the information that you have? Well, I just spent a moment looking around the crowd to see what the vote is. You're not getting any information unless I am absolutely in the group. No, no, no, no. Here we go. I'm not getting into the group to give me information. I'm not going to give you any information. Hey, listen. I could just walk away. No, no, no, no. It's misty outside. I find my people down south. I can go cut some, um, so no. You take me as a man of dishonor. I'll slash some pockets, yes, but throats, no. When we say you're in, you're going to give us the information right away. When you say I'm in, I shake all of your hands on it and then I give you the information. I don't want to shake your hand. You give us 30 shins. And then I give you 30 shins. And then we drink a lot of beer. All of you, man, we got to go. I like the idea. Okay, I'm all for it. What's the consensus? Uh, sure, why not? You guys need to take him for it. You can step away for a second if you need. Sure. He steps away for a second. Yeah, we are. Check the vote. He's in, right? He's in. Whatever. We can always kill him in the desert. There's lots of us and he's good meat. He's excited. I don't know any shit about that. Good meat. I'm all fucking hunted. Go away, mister. I'm not. Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you telling him what's wrong when you're not there? Because I'm really confused. You can't tell if I'm joking. Okay, sat down, man. Put a red shirt on. Yes, we invite him back. All right, so you take your vote and it's yes. So you flag him down and he comes back to the table. He doesn't sit down. He looks at you to see what the reaction is. I think I'll sit back down and tell him to go pound salt. You inform him that he is in. All right. Finish ends, please. So he reaches into a backpack and then pulls out something and then opens it up and pulls out something. And then opens up and pulls out something. And then there's a small bag of what just so happens to be 30 shins. And he places it on the table and then compartmentalize it back. That's a new guy you buy us all around and then tell us your information. Fair enough. So he buys around and he says the caravan that went missing was one of the viziers own private caravans. And there is a, I don't know, describe it. His caravans go to the south and as far as everyone in my contacts have it, they disappear. I don't know where they go. So this disappeared in a long way? Yeah. This disappeared in the wrong way. And what? They've been disappearing on a regular basis? And returning on a regular basis. They disappear from sight and return filled with stuff. I have two questions. Wait, I'm not done yet. No, sorry, just reboot and calm down. Just trying to be correct. I just managed to play a rogue with a dickish angel. Sorry. So this particular caravan left three days ago. It should have traveled for two days, disappeared, and returned. Interesting part is the return is almost instantaneous. And yet the caravans are laying with various goodies. But the return is to towel? Maybe I didn't describe it well enough. They travel for two days and disappear off of the map. They haven't gone on. I can't tell you how I know that. I just do. Then within about ten minutes, maybe a half hour tops. They're seen coming back in the same direction. Okay. For two days. Gotcha. They return to the city. He doesn't even need guards heading south. No one touches his caravans. No one. Not the ab humans, not the bandits. No one touches those caravans. That's the kind of power that he wields in this town. What makes this situation incredibly unique, and potentially incredibly profitable for all of us, is his daughter was on this caravan. He may have failed to mention that. Yeah. Has he sent anybody out? No, I'm not. Do we know anything about her daughter? We know. You don't know. You know he has a daughter. The vizier has a daughter. No, but I mean, are we talking to any infant? Oh, no. This would be an infinite peril. This would be no. It's not even a small girl. She's a wily teen. Because I'm just asking for the bedding pool. Up her teens, Mike. Up her teens. Nice. Right. Oh, yeah. She's a vizier's daughter. She's always taught. I'll sit there. Sit at the vibrate mode then. This one's 19. She certainly fits the bill. Everyone has heard of the daughter. She has quite the reputation of trouble making. Absolutely out of control. Not evil in any sense. Just an incredibly spoiled breath. Yeah. Spoiled teenager who basically owns the town and can do whatever it is she wishes and finds herself often in, I mean, it's a kind of rumor going crows with her. Why not? You may have. That sounds like my meaner. Yeah. She absolutely gets into and out of trouble with literally weekly frequency. If there were tabloids in serenity, the rumor mill is just incredible. You have two questions. I have two questions. Sure. How do you even know this information? So he can't tell you. He smiles. Stop asking questions and have no answer. Can I possibly answer that question? Then how did you know that this information does? What's your number? He said he'd be fine. Okay. Never mind. Here's a question you might be able to answer. What? Are all the big questions? You've been keeping eyes on care of ants or people. You've been keeping eyes of care of ants coming in and out. Has anything gone out since these three days ago when this one disappeared? Not in that direction. When this stuff comes back, it's taken up to the upper echelon. It disappears. Nobody sees it. Absolutely. There's actually, when it returns, there is a special area. It's in you all know a bit. It's almost like a small fortress outside of the below. It's up high on the regular ground level. It's a small fortress that his caravans pull into and out of. They don't go through the below. They go straight up to the mirages. Well, then what you're describing is it doesn't sound like it's a hijack or they're being taken. It could be. It doesn't sound like it. Not the normal property procedure. This one was. The one that his daughter was not. Whatever came back, is that it? Wait. I think you don't have some deep insight. I'm not trying to say that you have it. Like you're onto it. No, I just mean like it's not some clue or something. It's just I don't think either you don't understand or they don't understand what you just said. In one, no one touches a vizier's caravans, but somebody is. Right. Two, this is not just happened once. It's happened several times, correct? No. No. So it only happened once. In this particular one, she was on the caravan. Yes. Yes. And you've been summoned to take care of it. Okay. Which in retrospect, you were like, why would we go talk to the vizier about a caravan missing? Why wouldn't you just have some of his abigements or his guards or his entire fucking army? Why is he coming and getting us? Why are we talking to him instead of some low life block captain or watch captain or something like that? Well, now it becomes a little bit more interesting. Maybe... I think we're the fondant. There's all kinds of things you could be. No. Like nobody knows what it was. He's not sending his own guards because he doesn't want something bad to happen. We go out there. We find her. He's not expecting us to bring it back. It's his daughter. It's a win. He just sends the guards out. The caravan in the special thing missing. Was he speaking about his daughter? Maybe he was sending her off. No. He said just to let him know where it was. Maybe he was sending her off on purpose to get her out of town. It's something like that or he's just going to send the guards and say, look, they're definitely the people who way late caravan and they have my daughter and then we're going to die miserably. There's another thing about this. No one's ever gone in that direction to see... Well, no one... Not at the same time. But yeah. But certainly... Ask the stranger at the table. What's your name? It could be. It could be. It could be. How many people know about this caravan going in itself? This particular one? No, no, no. The fact that caravans go to the south and disappear and come back. Half the population, maybe more? No. Exactly the information you just gave us is so important. No. They know that caravans go to the south. They don't know they travel for two days and disappear and then get returned fully late and five minutes later and they don't know that his daughter is on the caravan. So there's two bits of information that people don't know and the leader doesn't want people to know and that's why we're being sent. One is the daughter and the other is what is really to the south. Yeah. Now, just so we're all clear on the same page. Other caravans do go to the south. There are some small, small, small villages deep within the cold desert that people sometimes travel to. There might be 50 people living there and someone's carved out a niche to deliver some goods. Yeah, exactly. Once a month to keep them alive. So it's not unheard of that caravans travel to the south. It's rare and it's actually super profitable. And they're gone for a long time. And they're gone for a while and they don't just disappear and return fully loaded. So that's the interesting part of, well, not interesting per se, but it's the unique part of this situation. So the one that disappeared just disappeared in their normal fashion. He doesn't know, because God doesn't know if it disappeared along the way. Like it got to its two-day point and disappeared or whether it got something happened to it beforehand. He just knows it should have been on his way back yet and he has not received any information about the case. And we'll call here for you now. Thanks for listening to Knights of the Night at Actual Play Podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures. Where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling props, and even a forum for comments and suggestions. Or you could email us directly at feedback@kotnpodcast.com Or contact us via Twitter or leave a message on Facebook. All music for this podcast was created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcasts or business, please visit ZenaudioSmith.com And please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. [Music] It's Nimanera Palooza. It's not. Shit. Spill them all out of gate over. Um, thank you. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of it's me because I'm not on top of my game, but we're a lot for our game tonight. Have you heard the video? [Laughs] Okay, so someone dials up next to you and purchases a fermented ice candle drink. And... Fuck you. You're the full set. Yes. It's a food food. It's a man's drink. It's all good. In order is an ice candle ale because that's so much better. And, um, it is better. Yeah. I mean, like manliness. Yeah. It's not at all. But you guys don't know it's Greg. And, to be honest, I'm going to have a talk with Greg anyways before, if he does come. So, just because it's Greg, doesn't mean that you're not going to get fucked somehow. Just to be completely honest. So, if we're metagaming, I may give him the royal fucker. It just might be an extra personal lump for the hands and good information. You have no idea what it's going to be in real life because I don't even know at this point. What are you, mother? He's expecting to know any shit about that. Good meat. I'm a fucking hunter. Go away, mister. I'm not. Look, are you okay? Are you telling him what's wrong when you're not there? Because I'm really confused. You can't tell if I'm joking.